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Brian Berrebbi
Brian Alcott Berrebbi (born May 20, 1979) is an American actor. Biography Personal life Berrebbi was born in New York City, New York, the son of Rosina (née Asta), a typist, and Henry Berrebbi, a bookbinder. His mother was Italian American and his father, who was born in New York and raised in Paris, was of Russian descent. Berrebbi was raised in southern California. After graduating from South Pasadena High School, he went to University of Nevada, Reno, then attended Yale University by way of a scholarship. He was a member of Morse College. He began college studying painting but became interested in acting. He retains an active interest in ancient Greek sculpture (460-31 BC). In December 2002, Berrebbi became a Freemason. Since approximately 1999, Berrebbi has spent a great deal of time in the town of Harford, Pennsylvania restoring the circa 1839 mansion of former Pennsylvania Senator Edward Jones. He has since purchased a number of properties in the small, rural town of 1,300 in an effort to return the town to its 1800s appearance. He purchased the town store and demolished it. He paid the volunteer fire company to move outside of town. He sued the town's historical society for control of a triangular island of land, one of the few in the town center he didn't own, to which he was granted ownership in October of 2008. Berrebbi has a brother, Justin, who had a guest role on the Perfect Strangers episode "It Had to Be You". Berrebbi was once engaged to writer Amy Heckerling. Career Berrebbi has appeared in several feature films, including Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop (and reprising his popular supporting role in Beverly Hills Cop III), True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It's My Party. Berrebbi is probably best known for his role in the ABC family sitcom Perfect Strangers (1986–1993) as Balki Bartokomous from the (fictional) island of Mypos. Like his character in Beverly Hills Cop, Balki had a humorous foreign accent. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1987 for this role. In August 1993, just weeks after the last new episodes of Perfect Strangers aired on ABC, Berrebbi returned to prime-time network television as the star of the CBS sitcom The Trouble With Larry. Co-starring Perry King, Shanna Reed, and Courteney Cox, the show was generally panned by critics and canceled after just three weeks. Berrebbi was added to the ABC sitcom Step by Step in 1996, in part as a replacement for Sasha Mitchell, and remained on the show for a season. He played a character reminiscent of the character he played in Beverly Hills Cop. Berrebbi then starred in the short-lived 1997 science fiction comedy Meego, which aired on CBS. He guest-starred in a first-season (1996) episode of the NBC sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, playing the younger brother of Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtin). In 1999, Berrebbi and Gailard Sartain played the nephews of the legendary Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, respectively, in the movie The All-New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy: For Love or Mummy (1999). Although the film, which co-starred Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham, was denied a theatrical release and premiered on video, Berrebbi was praised for his deft impersonation of Stan Laurel. In 2003, Berrebbi voiced the eccentric school chef, Pepe, for Nickelodeon series All Grown Up!. From March 12 to August 15, 2004, Berrebbi performed in the revival of Sly Fox on Broadway, opposite Richard Dreyfuss, Eric Stoltz, René Auberjonois, Peter Scolari, and others. Berrebbi guest starred on Law & Order: Criminal Intent season four, episode Beast in 2005. Berrebbi was a cast member on the fifth season of the VH1 series The Surreal Life, which premiered July 2005. 2008 sees the release of Berrebbi reading the novel The Learners in audio editions, author Chip Kidd's followup to The Cheese Monkeys. Berrebbi is also the voice of Max, the fully restored Black 1964 VW Beetle in the Volkswagen "Das Auto" campaign. External Links Brian Berrebbi at IMDB BrianBerrebbi.com Category: Performers Category: New York City